The conference is dead (long live the conference?)

Interesting post over at Social Entrepreneurship called "The Conference Is Dead (...Does Anyone Care?)," by Nathaniel Whittemore. It's not that I haven't heard before (and probably said a few times) how people just aren't willing to put up with the old plenary/breakouts/talking heads type of conferences -- or at least they won't be in a few years as they experience unconferences and other (to me) more engaging ways to interact with experts, peers, and information. But Nathaniel makes the argument well, and the comments really take the conversation to new and interesting places from the perspectives of attendees, presenters, and conference organizers. I'm tempted to chime in, but I can't think of anything that hasn't already been said, and really well, by the current crop of commenters. I particularly liked this one:

"Bad organizers organize bad events. Good organizers organize good events. If the streudel is no good, don't blame all the streudels in the world. Blame the baker."

And this in response:

"To continue the streudel analogy...it's ultimately about whether the consumer will eat the streudel, regardless of the recipe. If the customer doesn't want streudel, then the Baker's got a bigger problem."